Wasilla, Alaska-based Mat-Su Regional Medical Center is scrapping its plan for a 36-bed behavioral health unit in favor of a smaller unit to open this summer, according to the Anchorage Daily News.
The original facility was expected to cost over $19 million and be completed in December 2020, but the new wing will cost only $4.5 million. Hospital officials said the community it serves could not wait over a year for dedicated mental health services.
"We strongly felt we had to do something much more quickly than that," said Hope Allison, the hospital's behavioral health director.